Hear that lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to flyThat means he's lost the will to live I'm so lonesome I could cryDid you ever see a night so slow As time goes draggin' byThe moon just went behind the cloudsTo hide its face and cryThe silence of a falling star Lights up a purple skyAnd as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome I could cry Written in 1949, this lullingly poignant song was a Hank Williams great. The Alabaman Hank Williams (1923-1953), one of the most popular country music singer/songwriters in America, produced songs like Cold, Cold Heart, Your Cheatin' Heart, Hey, Good Lookin' and I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive.As his song titles suggest, Williams experienced heartbreak and turmoil throughout his life. As he became successful, his addiction to alcohol and opiates deepened. On his way to an Ohio concert in the back seat of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac he fell silent for several hours. Concerned, at 5:30 in the morning, his driver pulled over in Oak Hill, West Virginia and found Hank Williams dead.

https://youtu.be/-XhCI0tnsT8 Following the defeat of the Japanese in WWII, Indonesia proclaimed its independence in August 1945. What followed was a harsh attempt by the Dutch Empire (with some initial assistance by WWII allies) to recolonize Indonesia. From 1945-49, vastly overpowered by Dutch military technology, Indonesian independence fighters managed to resist Dutch occupation forces and achieve independence. https://youtu.be/Yid3TtHnHNg

In 1949 the book Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein into the Broadway musical South Pacific. https://youtu.be/6H3hVAfFcZY In 1958 it was produced as the movie South Pacific starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor. https://youtu.be/ZjLqIigWu_I

In April 1949, the HMS Amethyst was en route on the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Nanking China to replace another ship guarding the British Embassy during the Civil War between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese. Early in he morning, the Amethyst received a burst of small arms fire and a salvo of shells from a People's Liberation Army (PLA) gun battery on the bank of the river. The PLA claimed the artillery shells, most of which fell short of the ship, were intended for Nationalist forces on the opposite bank. The Amethyst unfurled Union Jacks and increased speed. There was no further firing from this battery. Further up river, the ship came under sustained fire from a second PLA battery. By the time the shelling stopped, 22 men had been killed and 31 wounded and the ship had received multiple hits. Over the next few days, repeated attempts to rescue the Amethyst by British warships were repelled by heavy shore battery fire. The Amethyst was held captive for almost three months. Ultimately, for release of the ship, the PLA demanded that Britain, the United States, and France withdraw their armed forces from all parts of China. Negotiations broke down. In July, the Amethyst slipped away in the night and successfully escaped 100 miles downriver on a route lined with hostile guns on both banks of the river.

James Vincent Forrestal (February 1892 – May 1949) was a strong supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Forrestal for the newly established position of Undersecretary of the Navy. https://youtu.be/3YGcBOXkzHM For ~ four years as undersecretary, Forrestal proved highly effective at mobilizing domestic industrial production for the war effort. Naval History and Heritage Command During WWII Forrestal toured battle sites in the Pacific and Europe. Four days after the invasion of Iwo Jima he was onshore watching the Marines raise the flag on Mount Suribachi. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed Forrestal the first United States Secretary of Defense. In 1949, frustrated with Forrestal's opposition to the partition of Palestine and to his military economization policies, as well as concern about his mental condition, Truman asked Forrestal to resign. Diagnosed with severe depression of the type "seen in operational fatigue during the war," Forrestal entered psychiatric treatment at the National Naval Medical Center (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) in Bethesda Maryland. in the early morning of May 22, 1949 his body, clad only in pajama bottoms, was found on a third-floor roof below his sixteenth-floor hospital room. Forrestal allegedly left a written statement (touted in the press as a suicide note) that was part of a poem from Sophocles' tragedy Ajax. Fair Salamis, the billows' roar, Wander around thee yet, And sailors gaze upon thy shore Firm in the Ocean set. Thy son is in a foreign clime Where Ida feeds her countless flocks, Far from thy dear, remembered rocks, Worn by the waste of time– Comfortless, nameless, hopeless save In the dark prospect of the yawning grave…. Woe to the mother in her close of day, Woe to her desolate heart and temples gray, When she shall hear Her loved one's story whispered in her ear! "Woe, woe!' will be the cry– No quiet murmur like the tremulous wail Of the lone bird, the querulous nightingale–

https://youtu.be/Y-UPCSf6WkQ In 1949, with Soviet financial and technical assistance, Kang Hong-sik directed My Home Village, the first film made in the new Democratic People’s People’s Republic of Korea. Gwan Pil, a poor farmer is deprived of his land by an evil Japanese colonial landlord and put in a Japanese prison where he meets an agent of the Korean People’s Army . The two men then break out of prison and join the guerrillas. The guerrillas blow up a Japanese train as Kim Il Sung’s army liberates the farmer’s home village. There, Gwan Pil leads the fight to create a new society.  Throughout the film, there is no mention of the American role in the defeat of Japan or the Soviet invasion during the liberation of Korea in 1945. The implication is that the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, was the major liberating force.

In 1904 Clarence E. Mulford created the fictional cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy, in a series of popular short stories and novels based on the character. Early on, Mulford portrayed Cassidy as a rude, dangerous, rough-talking man with a wooden leg that caused him to walk with a "hop." In 1935 the movie actor William Boyd transformed Cassidy into a sober and clean-cut hero. In June 1949, "Hopalong Cassidy, played by William Boyd," premiered on network (NBC) TV. The popular show continued for 52 more episodes.

Did Joseph Stalin approve Kim Il Sung's plan to attack South Korea in June 1950 because he wanted the US to become entangled in a limited conflict in Asia -- or was he reassured by Kim that the South would be rapidly overrun before the US could intervene? Whatever the reason, bogging the US down on the Korean Peninsula would allow the USSR to consolidate its control over eastern Europe. Source: Wilson Center

In 1949 Joe DiMaggio of the NY Yankees became the first $100,000/year baseball player. Joe DiMaggio, known as the "Yankee Clipper," was a supreme baseball player - an excellent fielder as well as hitter. Hall of Fame player, owner and manager Connie Mack called DiMaggio “the best player that ever lived.” His teammate All-Star Yogi Berra said: “I wish everybody had the drive he had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I'd never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.” https://youtu.be/gufSWZ5xSBc (11) Joe DiMaggio Biography- Life and Career of Baseball's Yankee Clipper - YouTube.weblocDownload

Irna Phillips (Old Magazine Articles) In January 1949 NBC broadcast the first TV daytime soap opera entitled "These Are My Children." Written by long-time radio and screen writer Irna Phillips, the show was broadcast live from Chicago for just fifteen minutes at five PM each week day. The story centered around the story of Mrs. Henehan, an Irish widow who oversaw a boarding house with her children. Although the show only aired for 24 days before being canceled, “These Are My Children” paved the way for a new popular TV genre. Though the show was a failure, it was the first time that a daytime soap opera appeared on a major television network. Over the next several years, televised soap operas such as Roy Winsor’s “Search for Tomorrow” and “Love of Life,” and Phillips’ television adaptation of “The Guiding Light” became popular https://youtu.be/MTmQcL8ij58

https://youtu.be/VUPCl1WUF-E VW Beetle   In 1933 Adolf Hitler demanded the production of an inexpensive automobile capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/hr.   After WWII British occupation forces in Germany ordered 20,000 Type I VW beetles for light transport use from the bombed-out factory in Wolfsburg.   In January 1949, the first VW Beetles arrived in America.   Today,  Volkswagen has overtaken Toyota (our other WWII enemy) as the largest automotive empire in the world.   Source: The first Volkswagen Beetle in America looked like this | Autoweek     https://youtu.be/Hpv6-SBwj1U

https://youtu.be/sXwSbkdVQro   In August 1949 the USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb at a  remote site in Kazakhstan with the codename  “First Lightning.” Buildings, bridges, other structure and caged animals were placed nearby to measure the effects of the blast.. The  20-ton atomic explosion (roughly equal to the American atomic bomb named “Trinity”) destroyed  all the structures and incinerated the animals.  

https://youtu.be/tZJoVPFoYPM In January 1949 Police broke into a room in the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco and arrested Billie Holiday and her manager John Levy on charges of possession of opium. Her defense attorney Jake Erlich, fingered Levy as an informer and persuaded the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. In 1959, while hospitalized for liver and heart disease, Billie Holiday was handcuffed and arrested by the FBI for drug possession as she lay dying in her hospital room - she was 44 years old. https://youtu.be/fIJbL5hoiWM Source: History of Heroin in America In 1803 the drug morphine was created from opium. Widely used during the American Civil War, it led to the first wave of morphine addiction. Opium smoking was introduced to America by Chinese immigrants in the mid-19th century. Throughout the 19th century many women were prescribed opium tonics and elixirs alleged to cure "female" maladies. Heroin was created in 1895 and marketed three years to morphine addicts as part of a campaign against morphine addiction. Thereafter, heroin addiction grew. Subsequent waves of opiate addiction in America occurred in: the 1930-40 Harlem jazz sceneduring the 1950s Beatnik culture. U.S soldiers in the Vietnam War 1955-75With improved purity, smoking and snorting heroin in the 1980-90sIn the late 1980s, physicians claimed chronic opioid therapy was safe for patients with intractable pain and no history of drug abuse. Financial support for a campaign against under-treatment of chronic pain provided by manufacturers of prescription opioid products e.g., Percocet®),Actiq® and OxyContin®) led to the current opioid epidemic. From 1991-2013 prescribers tripled the number of prescriptions written for opioids. Evidence now suggests that many abusers of prescription opioids are shifting to heroin as prescription drugs become less available or harder to abuse. -

https://youtu.be/HvBpuPMNuaA In 1948 Whittaker Chambers, ex-communist and editor with Time magazine, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Alger Hiss was a communist who had passed him top secret documents  during his work in the Department of State in the 1930s. Appearing  before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hiss denied the charges and said he did not even know Chambers. Later, he admitted he knew Chambers by another name at the time. Chambers then produced microfilmed documents he had hidden in a pumpkin patch that Hiss had supposedly given him in the 1930s. HUAC members, claimed that communists had penetrated the highest levels of the American government. Although President Harry Truman and Secretary of State Dean Atchison claimed the HUAC was using “red herrings” to defame him, Hiss was brought to trial. The first trial for perjury (the charge of treason was beyond the statute of limitations) ended in a deadlocked jury. The second trial ended in January 1950 with a guilty verdict on both counts.

https://youtu.be/zJIHi78T5lA In February 1949 an Ecuadorian folk song was interrupted by a Radio Quito announcer with urgent news: Martian flying saucers had landed and used death rays to destroy a town 25 miles south of Quito.Soon a "reporter" breathlessly reported the destruction of the Ecuadorian Air Force Base near Quito before he collapsed in a cloud of "deadly gas." Then "government officials" asked women and children to evacuate the city and able-bodied men to remain to fight the invaders. Police and firefighters were dispatched to the airport area to confront the aliens. Military cadets were ordered to establish defensive positions around their campus. Anticipating the end of the world, thousands of people sought absolution from their priests. When the radio station finally announced the program was a work of fiction based on Orson Welles 1938 radio drama War of the Worlds, angry mobs burned down their building. The fire was finally extinguished but the building was destroyed. Estimates of the death toll vary from six to twenty. Abstracted from: Cecilia Alvear

https://youtu.be/3xXUp9KAlAc In 1949 the play Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations, and arguments occurring in the last 24 hours of Willy Loman's life. Willy copes with loss of identity and inability to accept change within himself or society. Premiering on Broadway in February 1949, the play ran for 742 performances, and has been revived on Broadway four times, It was also made into a movie in 1985. https://youtu.be/Yxr_jWnUQ6E

https://youtu.be/8MQ59Ij5fkM The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 as an intergovernmental military alliance between 12 North American and European countries including: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since its foundation, other states that have joined are Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), and Montenegro (2017). NATO’s stated purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. POLITICAL - NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict. MILITARY - NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO's founding treaty - Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations. HERBLOCK - Washington Post The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 induced NATO members to coordinate integrated defense forces through a centralized headquarters. At that time, the North Korean invasion of South Korea was widely viewed as an act of communist aggression under the direction of the USSR. In response, the United States bolstered its troop commitments to Europe to provide assurances against Soviet aggression on the European continent. 

https://youtu.be/JhW90ZCpQSo The first living beings sent into outer space were fruit flies. Sent to test the effects of radiation on DNA, they flew in a V2 rocket to a height of 106 miles and returned to earth alive. In 1948 Albert, the first monkey to be sent, only made it to 39 miles (the term "space" only applies to the Kármán Line 62 miles above the earth surface) and suffocated at some point during the trip. In 1949 Albert II, a male rhesus monkey, made it to a height of 83 miles in a V2 rocket but died with the impact of landing. After Albert II, a number of other monkeys flew aboard rockets, but none survived the flight.

https://youtu.be/o7A16HvlbQw This clip is from Barsaat, a 1949  Bollywood film directed by Raj Kapoor. The film stars the famous duo of Kapoor and Nargis as well as Prem Nath. Barsaat, one of the first major hit films directed by Kapoor, allowed him to buy RK Studios in 1950. The name Bollywood, a mixture of Bombay (Mumbai) and Hollywood, is often used to summarize all movies produced in India. After the French Lumiere brothers arrived in 1896 to introduce their cinematograph, Bombay became the center of the Hindi cinema industry . Cinematograph machine (Cecil Wray And Cecil Baxter) Dadasaheb Phalke, often called the father of Indian cinema, made his first full-length movie in 1913 with both male and female characters played by men. By the 1930’s, 200 movies per year were produced in India. https://youtu.be/T4JdhXMeMck

https://youtu.be/IH7rFQWP0Lk   In February 1949 Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty was convicted of treason by the Hungarian Communist People’s Court. The Cardinal had been an outspoken critic of the persecution of Jews by the Hungarian fascist government during WWII. After WWII, he denounced the Communist government for political oppression and limiting religious freedom. In 1948 Cardinal Mindszenty was arrested along with several others for various crimes including: treason, trying to overthrow the government and speculation in foreign currency. Prosecutors produced documents said to implicate the Cardinal in antigovernment activities. The Cardinal admitted he was guilty "in principle" of most of the accusations, but denied any intention to overthrow the Hungarian government. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 1956, widespread protests installed a reformist Hungarian government, and Cardinal Mindszenty was released from prison. However, when Soviet troops entered the country to put down anticommunist protests in November 1956, Mindszenty took refuge in the U.S. embassy where he remained until 1971. Recalled by the Vatican, he lived in Vienna until his death in 1975.

https://youtu.be/OXf1fSiOYPs Flying out of Fort Worth, Texas, a United States Air Force Boeing B-50 Superfortress named Lucky Lady II made the first non-stop around-the-world flight in February 1949. With in-flight refueling, the 94-hour trip covered 23,452 miles at an average ground speed of 249 miles per hour.

https://youtu.be/jKlIwvKYIzI In March 1949, RCA Victor released 7- inch 45 revolutions per minute (RPM) records as smaller, higher-fidelity replacements for the 78 rpm shellac discs. The first 45 rpms were monaural and recorded on both sides. Almost all 45 rpms were produced in stereo by the early 1970s. https://youtu.be/ebRx7FN6vlc

The Law of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: A Handbook of Your Basic Rights, by Edwin S. Newman, Oceana Publications 1949.  In 1949, racism was still firmly rooted in the laws of many individual statest in the United States of America. States without stripes or polka-dots had laws in place forbidding discrimination. Striped states enforced or permitted segregation. States with had no laws in place bear polka dots. Numbers indicate the passage of laws either supporting or condemning segregation in particular arenas of public life.   Source: Rebecca Onion in Slate.com history blog, October 14, 2014 Meanwhile, if you're white, you're alright......... https://youtu.be/k0c1c0ZsTLA

https://youtu.be/yX4Cea5pIlE In January 1949 WDTV on Channel 3 (owned and operated by the DuMont Television Network, a TV equipment and set manufacturer) became the first American "networked" television station, providing a link between thirteen Midwestern and East Coast stations from Boston to St. Louis. To mark the occasion, a live evening television special aired on WDTV with a local broadcast from the Syria Mosque performance hall in Pittsburgh and live segments from DuMont, CBS, NBC, and ABC featuring Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, the DuMont host Ted Steele and other celebrities. Despite its broadcast innovations and features such as the TV star Jackie Gleason, the Dumont Network was never financially successful and went off the air in 1956. 

https://youtu.be/dx2IUWXBcoQ In 1949, in response to the 1947 U.S.-backed Marshall Plan, eastern European countries established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)  to facilitate and coordinate economic development of the eastern European countries belonging to the Soviet bloc. COMECON’s original members included: the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Although Albania joined COMECON in 1949, it ceased taking an active part at the end of 1961. The German Democratic Republic became a member in 1950 and the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1962.  

https://youtu.be/wdTPFW6RZPo Pingjing Campaign (Wikipedia) People's Liberation Army enters Peking January 1949 (Wikipedia) The Pingjin Campaign  was part of the three major campaigns launched by the People's Liberation Army during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War against the Nationalist government of the Republic of China. The term Pingjin refers to the cities Beiping (now Beijing) and Tianjin. The campaign, lasting from November 29 until January 31, 1949, marked the end of Nationalist dominance in northern China.

https://youtu.be/cORVhtz0zIg Following "Fair Deal" economic reforms and monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy took an 11-month downturn from November 1948 to October 1949. https://www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-by-year-3305506  Washington Area Spark In October 1949 unemployment reached a peak of 7.9 percent, then fell in the early 1950s. Overall, the recession of 1949 was considered a mild adjustment as the economy continued adapting to peacetime production.

https://youtu.be/vkQlSD8KDKI State of the Union Address January 1949 On January 5, 1949, President Harry Truman presented the state of the union address to the U.S. Congress. Issues discussed included: poor medical care, low minimum wage, inflation, poorly managed natural resources and inadequate education. Solutions he proposed included: empowering congress to impose price ceilings; endorsement of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project; new tax legislation to balance the national budget; changes in labor-related laws; improvement of Social Security, Education, health care, public housing and civil rights. https://youtu.be/XCV_8GaZ7P0 On January 29, 1949 Harry S. Truman was (re-) inaugurated president. In his inaugural speech, he emphasized four points: The four points First, "we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United Nations and related agencies, and we will continue to search for ways to strengthen their authority and increase their effectiveness."Second, "we will continue our programs for world economic recovery."Third, "we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression."Fourth, "we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas."